Try It Again
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: Eleventh in the Polygamy Project series! Beth is overreacting, Alex is struggling, Emily is here at all, and Hotch just wants to survive... and maybe even get back the woman of his dreams.


**Here's the eleventh in the series: Hotch! Enjoy!:)**

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Aaron Hotchner realized during that first day of the polygamy project that his already shaky relationship with Beth might just be officially on the rocks before the whole thing was all over. He just hadn't expected her to leave him so suddenly.

The air between them was already stiff – as it had been for awhile – when they retired to her bedroom that night, and it only got worse when they heard someone crying in the room next to hers. Alex Blake – one of his teammates and, for the next two weeks, "wives" – was crying, and that was no small wonder considering her recent divorce from her second marriage, to say nothing of his earlier realization about her first one.

To Aaron, that instinctively meant that she needed help, and it was, of course, his job to offer that assistance – his job on a lot of levels for the next couple of weeks, if he was going to take this project as seriously as they were being asked to.

"I'm going to go check on Alex," he said, already turning to go to Beth's closed bedroom door.

"But it's my night, Aaron," Beth said, instantly displeased – not that she was anything else with him here recently.

"Blake is upset; I should see if she needs anything," Aaron said calmly.

"As your agent or as your new wife?"

"As my _friend_, Beth!"

Beth snorted before reminding him, "You and Emily were just friends too – and you slept with her! Why did you even bother with having me around, Aaron? You obviously don't want me here!"

"You were a good cover story for my then-relationship with Emily!" Aaron finally snapped. It was a statement – a whole conversation – that they had been putting off for a long time, and being here in this project was apparently going to bring it to the fore at long last. "And, no, I don't want you here, because any more when you're around, you act like this right here, and neither Jack nor I need that!"

"Then I'll leave!" Beth yelled. "I'll leave right now, and believe me, Aaron Hotchner, I will not be coming back! Don't call me, don't talk to me, don't contact me _ever_! I'll stay at a hotel tonight and book a flight back to New York for in the morning. _No_, Aaron, do not touch me! We are through! Now…" Beth took a deep, deliberate breath. "I am going to pack, and you are going to look in on Alex. This is goodbye. Don't come back into this room unless I'm already gone."

"Goodbye," Aaron murmured at the door, before taking a deep breath of his own and going to knock on Alex Blake's bedroom door. "Blake, are you alright?" he called softly.

"Fine," the agent called back, although he could tell that she was trying to disguise her tears. "Don't bother with worrying about me."

Aaron rested his forehead wearily on the door, saying softly, "Alex…"

"I said leave me alone, Hotch!"

Knowing that she deserved better than that of her friend and co-worker – let alone someone who was posing as her husband – Aaron tried the door and, when he found it to be unlocked, went right in, uttering a simple, "No."

Blake glared at him, wiping tears from her eyes as he shut the door and walked across the room.

She was the first one to speak, and what she said surprised him for some reason. "I'm sorry about Beth just now."

Aaron shrugged as he settled on the very edge of the bed. "It's been coming for awhile." The plain emotionless truth of the matter before he offered, "I'm sorry about James."

She laughed derogatively, twisting a facial tissue in her hands as she echoed, "It'd been coming for awhile."

"It's still hard," he said, thinking back to his separating from Haley.

"Yeah," she murmured. "When Reid came to me about this project, I thought that it was a good idea for me – a way to get ready to start getting back out into the dating scene. I even thought that maybe trying polygamy again – even halfway – might help me get over that part of my past." She smiled tearfully at her lap, admitting softly, "I was wrong. I can tell you that already today. This is too many memories, too many things coming back at once. I know that Beth just walked out, but I really don't know if I can do this, Hotch. I meant what I said; I need you to leave me alone." She took a deep breath before continuing, her tone stronger now, "I'm sorry, but this was a mistake. I'll explain to Reid and Drs. Brennan and Sweets tomorrow, but I'm afraid all of us are going to have to bow out."

Aaron sat silently across from her for a minute before he stood, saying quietly, "Thank you."

She managed a half-hearted laugh at that. "You're welcome."

He said at the door, "Good night, Blake."

"Good night, Hotch."

He went out of her room, only to find Emily's bedroom door wide open with the woman herself leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed.

"So this is quickly becoming two weeks I didn't have to take off work," she said flatly. When Aaron didn't say anything, she asked him, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Beth and I have really been over for awhile and Blake just needs more time to get over James, but picked a really bad way to try and do that."

Emily nodded, accepting his explanation, and Hotch went back to the doorway of the bedroom Beth had just vacated. Emily's door was halfway closed when he said, "And it doesn't have to a waste of vacation time; you can still visit with the team while you're here. You've got two weeks with us."

There was a long pause then where the two of them just stared at one another, neither one willing to be the one to voice the thought that had just entered both of their minds.

But if anyone was going to say it, Aaron knew it was going to have to be him – Emily was too aware of the horrible timing of all of this to do it herself – so he did. "We've got two weeks where we could try being 'us' again… for real this time, Em."

"Hotch, I live in London now." Her voice was flat, but he saw that flash of _something _in her eyes that told him that she wanted what he had suggested.

She wanted to screw the timing of it all. She wanted to forget about her job for the next two weeks. She wanted to forget about the way they had hurt one another in the past and start over again. She wanted to see if what they'd had in the past was still there and able to be started again unencumbered by bureau regulations. He wanted all of those things too, and he told her so, right there in the hallway.

After that night, he and Emily spent the next two weeks living with Jack in the duplex, visiting with the team, and exploring the thought of having a real, out-in-the-open relationship with one another.

Theirs hadn't been an experiment in polygamy, but it had been an experiment in a relationship of their own – and it went so well that they didn't stop said relationship when Emily went back to London.

They'd tried it once before and gone about it all the wrong way then, but they were trying it again, and this time they were determined to make it work. She was worth it. He was worth it. _They _were worth it.

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